- US home sales fell in March
Source: ABC News
“Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in March to their slowest pace nine months, as easing mortgage rates failed to motivate home shoppers during what’s traditionally been the busiest time of the year for the housing market. Existing home sales fell 3.6% last month from February to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.98 million units, the National Association of Realtors said Monday. Sales also fell 1% compared with March last year, weighed down by declines in the Northeast and Midwest. The latest sales figure fell short of the roughly 4.06 million pace economists were expecting, according to FactSet.” (04/13/26)
https://abcnews.com/Business/wireStory/us-home-sales-fall-march-marking-slow-start-131993414
- France: Court rules cement gian Lafarge guilty of funding Syria terrorism
Source: Al Jazeera [Qatari state media]
“A French court has found cement group Lafarge guilty of financing ‘terrorism’ through its Syrian subsidiary, fining the company and jailing its former CEO. The Paris court ruled on Monday that Lafarge had paid protection money directly to ISIL (ISIS) and other armed groups and breached European sanctions to operate in northern Syria during the country’s civil war in 2013-2014. The case is just the latest of several concerning the company’s conduct during the conflict. The court ordered Lafarge to pay a fine of 1.12 million euros ($1.32m), and for 30 million euros ($35.1m) worth of its assets to be confiscated. An additional fine was levied for having disregarded international sanctions. The ruling can be appealed.” (04/13/26)
- Study: Majority of Australian kids are still on banned social media platforms
Source: Engadget
“Many countries are pursuing social media bans for anyone under 16, but a recent poll is putting the effectiveness of such laws into question. The Molly Rose Foundation, a charity organization that focuses on preventing online harm, recently published a study that polled 1,050 Australian children between ages 12 and 15 in March. The study’s results showed that 61 percent of those between 12 and 15 who previously had access to affected social media platforms still have one or more active accounts. Australia made a first-in-the-world decision to ban social media for those under 16 years old, beginning on December 10. While it’s only been a few months since the ban went into effect, the foundation’s poll concluded that the ban doesn’t have a ‘clear positive or negative impact on children’s wellbeing.’ The study also noted that 70 percent of children trying to get on restricted platforms said that it was easy to get around the ban.” (04/13/26)
- Pride flag to be officially restored at Stonewall National Monument after Trump regime agrees to settle lawsuits
Source: CBS News
“The federal government has agreed to officially restore the Pride flag that was removed from the Stonewall National Monument in New York’s Greenwich Village. The move marks a reversal by the Trump administration, which had the flag removed back in February. It comes on the heels of a lawsuit brought by several nonprofit groups against Department of Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the National Park Service and others. The agreement to restore the flag settles the lawsuit. The National Park Service said it removed the flag under guidance from the Department of Interior, which had said non-agency flags could not be officially displayed on flagpoles managed by the National Park Service.” (04/13/26)
https://www.cbsnews.com/newyork/news/stonewall-national-monument-pride-flag-restored/
- Blockading The Blockade?
Source: Ron Paul Liberty Report
by Ron Paul“President Trump was presented with a great opportunity on Saturday to take the off-ramp from his war on Iran. After threatening Iran that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight,’ Trump managed to get a two week pause in the war with the intervention of the Pakistani government. … after a month and a half of war, where tens of billions of dollars have been spent, every US base in the region is either damaged or destroyed, and dozens of military aircraft have been lost, President Trump did not take the off-ramp. He hit the accelerator. … Over the past weeks he has alternated between insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is unimportant to the United States and demanding that the Strait be opened immediately. Then yesterday he announced – via his social media account – that the United States military would start blockading Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.” (04/13/26)
http://www.ronpaullibertyreport.com/archives/blockading-the-blockade
- City-Created Problems and Taxpayer-Funded Fixes
Source: Bluegrass Institute
by Mark Moses“Each year, local governments spend tens of billions of dollars on economic development incentives — tax abatements, fee waivers, and direct subsidies — intended to lure private investment. Cities across the nation tout their ability to entice marquee employers, generate buzz with ribbon-cuttings, and implement incentive programs designed to attract private capital. Even small-city councils establish these departments to signal support for economic growth and to boost city revenues. Yet beneath the surface of city branding, press releases, and fiscal sustainability strategies lies a more troubling reality: economic development departments, far from facilitating genuine development and demonstrating the appropriateness of their spending, entrench inefficiency, distort markets, and perpetuate the very obstacles they purport to overcome.” (04/13/26)
https://www.bluegrassinstitute.org/city-created-problems-taxpayer-funded-fixes/
- It’s high time for this (self-employed) worker revolution
Source: Washington Post
by Jonathan Wolfson“While workers have always been free to pursue independent contracting, the companies that hire them aren’t free to offer them benefits such as contributions to retirement plans or health savings accounts. Both federal and state law make it likely that doing so would force companies to classify independent contractors as traditional employees. But independent workers don’t want to be employees. As for businesses, hiring employees imposes extra paperwork and management costs that benefit only lawyers and accountants. That’s a lose-lose for businesses and workers alike. … This is where states are starting to lead. In 2023, Utah passed the nation’s first law giving companies an employment law safe harbor for offering portable benefits. Doing this will no longer affect an independent contractor’s employment status.” (04/13/26)
- Federal Reserve: Without Tariffs, Inflation Would Have Dropped to Pre-Pandemic Levels During 2025
Source: Reason
by Eric Boehm“Tariffs implemented last year by President Donald Trump’s administration are entirely to blame for the recent surge in prices for consumer and household goods. Those tariffs have raised core goods prices by 3.1 percent, according to a new study by a trio of economists at the Federal Reserve. Those higher consumer prices were the result of retailers passing the cost of tariffs along the supply chain. As of February 2026, the tariffs ‘can explain the entirety of the excess inflation in the core goods category since January 2025,’ the economists concluded.” [editor’s note: That the claim comes from the Fed at least somewhat taints its credibility. On the other hand, there’s zero doubt that tariffs raise prices – TLK] (04/13/26)
- Annihilating Iranian Civilization with a Blockade
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Jacob G Hornberger“After threatening to annihilate Iran with bombs, President Trump and the U.S. national-security establishment have decided to do so with their tried and true foreign policy tool of sanctions — or, in this case, they’re calling it for what it is — a blockade, which, as most everyone recognizes, is an act of war just as much as a bombing spree is. … While Trump, the Pentagon, and the CIA realize that American consumers will continue to suffer the economic consequences of their illegal and unconstitutional (i.e., no congressional declaration of war) war of choice and war of aggression on Iran, the hope is that Iranian officials, faced with the prospect of mass starvation among the Iranian people, will capitulate and unconditionally surrender to U.S. forces prior to the mid-term elections.”(04/13/26)
https://www.fff.org/2026/04/13/annihilating-iranian-civilization-with-a-blockade/
- How Iran Won the Meme Wars
Source: The Nation
by Jeet Heer“While Donald Trump panders to MAGA, Iranian satire is reaching a global audience.” (04/13/26)
https://www.thenation.com/article/world/iran-lego-videos-trump-hegseth-memes/
- How silencing medical debates puts patients at risk
Source: Expression
by Alison Riddoch“Some topics in medicine can be uncomfortable to discuss. But debate and disagreement are signs of conversations worth having, not problems to be avoided. It is only through open discussion that we can meaningfully address questions about ethics, patient care, and medical judgment. When educational institutions censor these conversations, they prevent the very debate necessary for informed decision-making, leaving students less equipped to navigate the ethical and clinical challenges of their chosen fields. Regardless of one’s views on late-term abortion, the ethical questions it raises are a reality that future medical practitioners must confront.” (04/13/26)
https://expression.fire.org/p/how-silencing-medical-debates-puts
- The Doomed Road to Tehran
Source: The American Conservative
by Scott McConnell“Policymakers have not understood that the Iran War is more akin to Vietnam than Iraq.” (04/13/26)
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-doomed-road-to-tehran/
- A Confrontation with Truth
Source: The Reframe
by AR Moxon“If you live where I live, which is the United States, your country has been at war overseas for the last many weeks, and also for your entire life. The latest iteration of this war is between a fanatical religious autocracy whose militaristic posture, nuclear ambitions, and zeal for apocalyptic outcomes threatens the future of human life on the planet, and Iran. Yes, despite the best efforts of corporate media propaganda outlets to try to channel the U.S.’s latest needless adventures in overseas civilian-murder into more traditional narratives of American exceptionalism, it has not escaped the attention of most people that the current temporary U.S. president and longtime child rapist Don Trump is utterly deranged.” (04/13/26)
- The Last Top Jock? Trump as the GOAT (or So He Believes)
Source: TomDispatch
by Robert Lipsyte“Seventy-five years ago, my father and I gazed down from the stands at Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle in the outfield at Yankee Stadium. I was thrilled by the sight of two heroes of my time, but Dad was not impressed. He had seen Babe Ruth. I think about that now, in a time desperate for such symbolic representatives of our better selves, which we once derived from sports figures like Mickey, Joe, and the Babe. They distracted us from pain and poverty. They gave us hope. I wonder if the answer to ‘Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?’ (that line from Simon and Garfunkel’s famed song ‘Mrs. Robinson’) is the same as to so many other wrenching questions these days: Donald Trump. Consider the following: Until he wore himself (and his welcome) out with such excess, he was indeed superb at commanding attention and winning ugly.” (04/12/26)
- The Axis of Autocracy Loses a Wheel
Source: Paul Krugman
by Paul Krugman“[W]hile Orbán didn’t manage to end elections in Hungary — probably because Hungary remains highly dependent on aid from the European Union — he tried hard to lock in one-party rule. His party largely killed the free press, making sure that its allies controlled the media. It rigged the electoral system in ways that would allow it to stay in power unless there was a landslide vote for opposition parties. Again, it did what MAGA is trying to do in America. But despite (or perhaps partly because of) JD Vance’s unprecedented campaigning for Orbán, he was, in fact, handed a landslide defeat by the Hungarian people. And to his credit, Orbán did what Trump never has: he conceded defeat.” (04/13/26)
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/the-axis-of-autocracy-loses-a-wheel
- The Right Wants You Stupid
Source: Liberal Currents
by Matthew McManus“Conservatism, and even more radical forms of right-wing thought, has often been defended with insight and even profundity. Liberals and leftists would benefit from spending more time internalizing the wisdom of the right. Nevertheless Mill, who was very familiar with intelligent right-wing contemporaries like Carlyle and Coleridge, grasped an important point that Kirk rarely acknowledged: the undeniable anti-intellectual streak that has pervaded the right down to Donald Trump declaring his love for the uneducated and JD Vance proclaiming professors are the enemy. This is a feature, not a bug, of many (though obviously not all) on the right’s worldview.” (04/13/26)
- Orbán Lost Spectacularly Because the Hungarian People Simply Stopped Fearing His Authoritarianism
Source: The UnPopulust
by Laszlo Gendler“Magyar’s victory was not supposed to be possible. Orbán was not supposed to lose his grip on power. How, exactly, did Orbán fail to steal the election? The structural advantages were real and formidable. The gerrymandered electoral map had delivered Fidesz 135 seats on 54% of the vote in 2022. Campaign spending limits had been abolished. Fidesz and its proxies outspent Tisza 11 to 1 on advertising. … Part of the answer is that the EU held its ground. The €19 billion in frozen funds — suspended over rule-of-law violations — became a material argument that Orbán’s system carried a direct cost for ordinary Hungarians. … But the larger answer, put simply, is bravery. Autocracy runs on fear—on the assumption that enough people, confronted with sufficient consequences, will decide that compliance is safer than truth. What dismantled Orbán’s operation was the accumulation of individual decisions to the contrary.” (04/13/26)
https://www.theunpopulist.net/p/orban-lost-spectacularly-because
- Reason Roundtable, 04/13/26
Source: Reason
“Is the War in Iran Totally Pointless?” (04/13/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/04/13/is-the-war-in-iran-totally-pointless/
- Finding Freedom, 04/13/26
Source: Lions of Liberty
“Paradise Lost: The Dubai Expat Crisis with Mikkel Thorup.” (04/13/26)
https://www.lionsofliberty.com/episodes/ff-paradise-lost-the-dubai-expat-crisis-with-mikkel-thorup
- The Vital Center, 04/13/26
Source: Niskanen Center
“Recovering the lost genius of liberalism, with Adrian Wooldridge.” (04/13/26)
https://www.niskanencenter.org/recovering-the-lost-genius-of-liberalism-with-adrian-wooldridge